A Time Goes By
by Lautari
Summary: ONE SHOT. Time goes by and memories become shadows.


_Please bear with me, I just recently began reading the Twilight novels and have never seen the movie, so if there are any storyline issues it's due to my ignorance. This is just a little one-shot I wrote after becoming more and more curious about Edward's prior life. If youy like the story please give me a review, and if not...give me a review. I don't mind._

This is set after the conclusion of _New Moon_.

ooooooooOOOOOoooooooo

"What are you thinking?" Edward whispered, pressing his lips against my hair softly.

I I raised my head from it's resting place on his shoulder and gazed into his dark eyes and tried to imagine them as a bright green. "What do you remember about your parents?"

Edward frowned and stopped caressing my arm. "What?"

"What do you remember about your parents? Your childhood?"

"I've told you, I remember very little. The fever from the from the influenza probably made my memories even more vague."

"Tell me what you do remember."

He sighed. "I remember emotions more than anything...smells and touches." I nestled back down against him as his eyes went to a faraway place. "My mother was beautiful," he whispered.

I remembered Carlisle describing her and how Edward had favored her. "I'm sure she was," I murmured against his chest.

"She was soft, and her hands were always gentle. She had a big laugh though."

"Did she play the piano?"

Edward gave his twinkling laugh, that I'm sure resembled the one that existed in his memories. "No! She was not musically talented. She would even say that she couldn't carry a tune in a bucket."

He immediately stopped breathing and I raised my head. His brow was furrowed, as if he had surprised himself with the knowledge. "My father played," he said, but it was more of a question, as if he wasn't quite sure. "I remember a piano being played all the time...yes, I remember because he would tease me when I was young about my feet not reaching the pedals. He would sit on the bench next to me and do it for me." A long silence filled the room before I felt his chest rise and fall again. "Please Bella, I don't want to remember anymore."

I looked into his eyes and for the first time saw the genuine grief he had carried with him for nearly a century. "You miss them," I stated.

He refused to meet my gaze. "Ninety years is a long time to be wihout your loved ones. I love Carlisle and Esme but...yes, I miss them. At least I think I do. I'm over a hundred years old, but apart of me is still that seventeen year old boy that wants his parents back."

I squeezed his cool hand as tears began to burn my eyes.

"You give more than your soul to this life. You give everything you know. You stop in time while while everything moves forward, and before you know it everyone and everything you love is gone."

Edward's voice was haunted and I shook my head while tears ran down my cheeks. "Why are telling me this?"

"Because I want you to think long and hard about this, Bella," he said gripping my face and wiping the wetness away with his thumbs. "This is not a choice to be made on a whim. One day your parents will die. And every decade that passes will take you further away from them until nothing is familiar anymore and memories become mere shadows."

I swallowed hard and spoke words that had been on the tip of my tongue for awhile. "Would you have chosen this life?"

Edward's face lost all emotion pondering the question I'm sure he had never let himself think to long on. "Who's to say?" he answered vaguely. "All who have becomevampires have had that choice made for them. You area rare one Isabella Swan. You're ability to choose is a gift. Make it wisely. "

I met his eyes steadily. "I've never had a choice. The first time you touched me...my choice was made for me."

I knew the truth of my words when I spoke them. I thought of Charlie sleeping down the hall and felt grief stricken. It broke my heart thinking of him and my mother, even friends at school who would live their lives and then pass out of existence, but my decision was made. They would age and die whether I remained human or not. But Edward...he was constant, the promise of forever.

"You know a part of them will live on with you forever," I whispered to him, hoping to give comfort to both of us in our now shared grief. "You carry traits and gifts they gave you. Whenever you play the piano...I'm sure it makes your father very happy wherever he is. And I'm sure that sometimes it's almost like Elizabeth is looking out at the world through your eyes."

Edward kissed me gently and gently traced my lips with his fingertips. "You know what I remember most about my parents? They loved each other. When the influenza hit my mother and me my father was already gone and...I don't think she wanted to live without him. I've spent over ninety years looking for that same devotion but I never understood it until I thought I'd lost you."

I kissed him softly and then curled back up next to him and waited for morning.


End file.
